2012 in Review

Season’s Greetings from the Groscost Family -

We hope this letter finds you in the same place (financially) as you were 4 years ago.  The continual economic skid calls for disciplined spending, so we completed our 6^threfi in 10 years.  All have been under the guise of “the lowest interest rates you’ll ever see”, so totally justifiable.  This allowed us to free up some of that secure capital to be used irresponsibly.

Our Travels:

Our vacations and weekend trips were fraught with family chaos and emergencies despite the ill-advised spending.  The summer fun started with a ferry ride across the sound to the peninsula.  Lounging on the upper deck was cut short with an announcement from the Captain – “if you have a Honda Pilot with dogs in your car, they miss you.”  The annual trip to Chelan and teaching Ruth to waterski included a jaunt to the local hospital.  After a 90 minute evaluation from Chelan’s finest physicians, it was determined that Ruth was actually uninjured and she ended up back out on the water tube for the rest of the day. 

Ruth and Mari in Chelan

On a trip to Sequim, the dogs wanted out of the cabin during the night every 15 minutes.  After several trials of going out to “just sniff around” Curt drew the line and sent the dogs to bed for the balance of the night.  Next morning, Tracey arose to an alarming odor and a grizzly scene (picture The Texas Chainsaw Massacre with excrement instead of blood).  Si went to California with his friend’s family and stayed on a house boat on Lake Shasta (Curt’s dream vacation).  Si had fun. . . . and pretty much no idea what a luxury he stumbled onto.   

We took the kids to their first rock concert – a local cover group Spike and the Impalers.  Now Ruth has “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap” in her iPod favorites.  We unexpectedly ran into Si’s teacher there.  It was a fair trade: 2^nd grader out ‘til 11 on a school night vs. gradeschool teacher with backstage pass to a rock concert.  No one felt the need to bring it up again.  The adults went to Vegas this fall.  Believe it or not, the main instigator of the gambling trip was Tracey.  Of course she had ulterior motives – Rod Stewart was playing.  We purchased flight tickets to Spain recently.  Since it wasn’t authorized by us we won’t be going unless the person that facilitated the transaction fesses up and lets us in on the details.  Notice how Detroit never seems to be a credit fraud destination? 

Ready, set, go

We got our redneck on with a “new” RV this year.  The old one did such a good job of shading part of the yard, we thought we’d get another.  Curt sold the old trailer on Craigslist.  It was so “competitively priced” a bidding war ensued until two of the world’s largest human beings stepped in to “rot test” the floor in a show of Mass vs. Math.  The half-price one-day sale preserved our marriage for the day.  We gas-hogged it over to Silverwood to confirm why Disneyland isn’t in Idaho.  Then, “camped” up at Lake Easton where all of us (including the dogs) experienced the Great Indoors.  Curt is plotting and planning a road trip this summer. Tracey is scheduling a doctor’s appointment before we go so she can get something stronger than a Corona Light to self-medicate for the trip.

Hiking up Dungeness Trail

We’d planned a camping trip to the Oregon Coast but the rain drove us east - to Sun Lakes Resort.  In typical eastern Washington fashion we fished, drank Rainier beer and let the kids shoot bb guns with their friends.  No injuries were reported but a lot of fun was had.  They had this “water balloon wars” area where you launch water balloons at the other team.  The kids – the “adult kids” – had a great time.  The real kids didn’t see the humor of being hit in the face with a water balloon.  Kids these days.  They did enjoy the fishing on the dock and the kayaking though. 

The Kids Are Growing Up!

The age of innocence has officially ended in our family.  The kids are not doing what they're told, talking back, and flatulence is no longer accidental.  Tyranny has expired – everything is up to debate and conditions regardless of how loud we holler.  The toughest part of parenting is figuring out all the tie-breakers because, by gosh, our Gen Z kids are going to be treated fairly.  

Gator training mishap

Since we encourage competitiveness and are keeping score out loud (as is encouraged in all the good parenting manuals), Si is finally catching up with Ruth in hurting the other's feelings.  This gave us a peek into Ruth’s well-camouflaged softer (and more dramatic) side.  She has a flair for acting but most episodes of pretending to be hurt aren’t long enough to outlast Si pretending to care.  The ole spell-a-word-so-they-won’t-know-what-you’re-talking-about trick is no longer effective on the kids, but now they use it on Copper and Olive.  “Can I give the dogs a T-R-E-A-T?”  The kids can spell all swear words so inadvertent phonetic cursing has caught on.  It’s still hard to get used to a 7 year old girl calling her 9 year old brother “dude” or seeing her fist pump like Tiger Woods (though it’s debatable whether the reason is ever cause to justify it).  Homework is currently overwhelming.  It’s probably just first, second and third grade and will be much easier from now on.  It’s no accident that most of it takes place between 25 and 70 MPH, as we are a family on the move.  Fortunately, thanks to the internet, parents aren’t sought for their wisdom or as a knowledge resource any more – Uncle Google and Aunt Wikipedia are doing all the heavy lifting from here on out.

Veggie heaven

Discipline these days often results in lectures.  It may be working for the wrong reason.  Any measure to avoid Dad’s Droning Diatribes seems to be the kid’s philosophy now.  Curt’s rigid nutrition principles have backfired.  Both our kids have drifted down below the 15^th percentile in height and weight.  It seems like that booster seat law is increasing faster than the kids are growing now, so at this rate the kids won’t be out of booster seats until they graduate.  In school they are known as “the kids with the weird food in their lunch”.  Si would rather be admonished for not eating his vegetables than risk being caught throwing them away.  Ruth, on the other hand...

We went from iPods to iPad this year.  The kids time-share one they received for their birthdays….. and it only encourages cooperation because there’s an app for that.  Harvesting boxtops continues to be a primary source of entertainment, just to give you an idea of how interesting life can really be here.  It brings money to the schools, but certainly doesn’t encourage good eating habits.  You don’t find those things on fresh produce or organic meat.

Si is no stranger to getting his attitude on.  He has bouts of ungratefulness which are welcomed with parental care and consideration (what font do you use for sarcasm?).  Usually, happens when he’s tired, so we’ve granted partial credit for being a human being.  Si went to his first overnight camp this summer – 7 days at the YMCA’s Camp Orkila on Orcas Island - and came back with the RESPECT Award, so one week must not be enough time for an accurate assessment. 

 Si enjoyed soccer, skiing, baseball and swimming this year.  He tested out lacrosse and may give that a whirl (=pain tolerance test) this year.  He had great soccer and baseball coaches this year and we feel very fortunate to have such dedicated folks making  such a positive influence on our kids (since we don’t make the time for it). 

Ruth at a kid's triathlon

Ruth started and ended a “lying phase” (at least until she turns 13 when she will begin doing it maliciously, full time). She told multiple people that when she and her dad were catching fish in Rattlesnake Lake, she saw a shark jump out of the water and eat a seal.  While that’s mostly believable, her Uncle Mitch saw through it because he knows Curt never catches any fish.  Ruth is enrolled in gymnastics and we pay for all the training, attire and Booster fees.  Her attendance does not reflect the investment.   She is a lot like her mom and complains that it is “too hard” and “I’m tired”.  She’ll have some gymnastic meets this spring – it should be interesting.  We’d love to see her continue it because she is freakishly strong, but she may retire.  We told her she had to do some sport and considering her personality Roller Derby would be fitting.  Ruth is showing some strong tendencies.  She draws on everything with her new found unfocused artistic expression – Maybe ITT will sponsor a career in graffiti.  She still retains some Daddy’s girl as she has started spitting out the car window. 

The Homestead:

The brick driveway is officially finished. View the completed project at divorceproject.com.

Tracey got a new car.  The first car she picked was met by Curt with “do you know that’s a luxury car?!” (probably just an error on Tracey’s part).  We ended up with a Lexus but had to get a 2009 order to afford the appearance that we are luxury people.  Tracey is happy and Curt is not unhappy that Tracey is happy.  Next challenge – sell a Volvo wagon with a quarter million miles on it.  Tracey’s brother Jim moved to Thailand.  He has sent pictures and videos which make life there seem very easy.  Will it seem disingenuous when we visit him more now than when he was a few zip codes away?

Dogs drew the short straw on timing.  Before or after kids is when pets get spoiled.  Though they have it good, they are subject to actual training.  Fortunately for them, we lack the time and discipline for the optional enforcement part.  

Barely crossing the line

Rule follower

We have been able to uphold No Dogs in the Kitchen though (see blue line in pictures).  Copper somewhat parallels the Wikipedia description of his name...  “high electrical conductivity” running through the house...  “tensile strength” when he pounces on Olive... “corrosion resistance” explains his impeccable coat, although his slobber may well be... “creep resistance” is clear in his training (or lack of).  He’s a joy for the family but needs time to adjust to guests – so high maintenance but duty bound and protective.  He’s three now, so we probably have another eight years of this.  Olive (if her coat was brown) could not be any more like the dog in The Grinch That Stole Christmas.  Typical lab(ish) – apologizes for everything and wags her tail even when she’s barfing.  Both are great family pets.

As each month goes by in our lives, we genuinely realize how blessed we really are.  Great families, wonderful friends, good jobs, great health....  We are thankful and work to appreciate what we have.  We hope to see most of you some time in 2013 and enjoy a laugh or two.  Time flies by - that is for sure.  May 2013 bring you great joy and peace and best wishes to you and your loved ones.

The Groscosts - 

Curt, Tracey, Si, Ruthie, Olive and Copper

Christmas 2011

2011 was another year checked off for the Groscost clan



A precursory intro…. We do not “blog” and do not even know what that means.  However, the kids have revolted and will not be part of the assembly line of folding letters, stuffing envelopes, sticking on address labels and affixing stamps.   So we’ve officially gone green with this electronic holiday letter.  We offset that earth-friendly effort by tripling our plastic bag use in anticipation of the upcoming mandate.

At Molbak's

It’s amazing how much has changed since last publishing:  One year ago the Packers were headed to the Super Bowl, the economy was in the tank and Obama was winning over the conservatives.   For us, 2011 represented a year of reflection and introspection, in which we took a step back and paused to carefully evaluate what’s really important in life.  Then decided our staples are still top priority - eating out, vacationing with friends and beer (not necessarily in priority order), overspending and burning the candle at all three ends.

The Groscost Children:

Ruth graduated from training wheels this summer.  She certainly is on her own her pace with development milestones – no sense of urgency whatsoever.  As an adult she could be the next Colbie Caillat or live on a tropical beach, painting beads to make money to buy her next Corona and surfboard.  Agendas and deadlines don’t appear useful to her at this point.  However, should there be a career position in one-upping your older brother, she would excel. 

 

Si’s retired from four seasons of flag football but you’d think he spent the last ten years in the NFL to hear him talk.  Ruth gave up gymnastics in order to spend more time painting her nails.  Both kids seem to have taken an interest in art and music. Dad couldn’t be more proud.  Si lost a front tooth the old fashioned way - taking a tether ball to the face at school.  He proved it wasn’t an accident by losing another one the very next day the same way.  

The kids don’t get a regular allowance, they earn their pay through “special situation” chores like the annual housefly harvest (catch and release with a bug-vac, paid per insect).  It’s a little like herring season in the Bering Sea – in development and process. 

Ever wonder what activities your kids REALLY do enjoy and what they are doing just because they’re held captive. . . . Yep, neither do we.  But we did conduct a survey to see what they had to say about it.  They each made a top ten list ranking of what they like to do, which their folks conveniently retain and use against them for our benefit.



Now that both kids are in Opstad Elementary we’re reaping the financial rewards of public schooling and the kids will suffer the reality of it.  Of course, those proceeds flooded our savings account and we have no idea what do with it. 

Rattlesnake Lake with Ruth's
hiking hat

We broke out of the bouncy house birthday party routine with Si this year.  We had a group sleepover with his six of his best (most destructive) friends.  The furnishings and finish work in the family room tell the story of the good times (lack of supervision) the boys enjoyed.  We were awakened at 2:30 A.M. for an upset tummy.  After taking Ignatius (name changed per HIPAA compliance) home, we found two sinks half-filled with stomach contents.  That kid got the MVP considering all of the discharge target possibilities between the bed and the bathroom.  Evidently, pizza, candy, bowling, popcorn, wrestling and ice cream aren’t a good combo for all 8-year olds. 

Si has been reading labels for sport these days.  He wanted to

Ruth's first day of Kindergarten

know why everything was made in China.  We told him each country has to do it once and it’s their turn.  He did find a toy that wasn’t made in China, but we assured him at least the label was, and it was probably assembled there as well.  The kids are getting a steady diet of play dates. We prefer to host so that we lure the family secrets from their kids.  The reverse has been semi-damaging to our renowned reputation.

The latest cultural fashion is to provide kids with a “menu” at mealtimes.  Apparently, we parents these days have been lured into believing that our kids would starve in protest rather than ingest the so-called food we put before them.  We hereby declare bullshit and are prepared to counter this trend with one-option of regular (aka nutritious) food to any kids who dine with us.

The Groscost Adults:

In a financial restructuring move, we liquidated the equity in our rental house to buy GET credits for the kids’ college.  We’re not convinced this is the more secure investment option.  We’ll know in 15 years (or pessimistically, sooner) if the G holds up.

North Bend hosted its first Warrior Dash.  We left our tennis shoes in the muck with 30,000 others to eat a smoked turkey leg and earn our fuzzy horns.  It’s a natural fit for our area – a river valley marsh with mud, fire, alcohol and hillbillies.  This event doubled as Tracey’s entire triathlon training program.   She did show her Danskin support by signing up for it, then revising the “swim and swig” club to the “swig and swig again” club.  There’s always next year.

Curt received his first dental crown after he broke a tooth while flossing – is there a better example of life’s sweet irony?  While this isn’t typical holiday letter fare, it is a noteworthy source of pride considering the price of gold these days.  All the work it takes on Gold Rush and look what you can get from 90 minutes in the dental office.

Tracey saw an aerial view of her hair and realized she had reached the point that she needed to step it up from self-administered “semi-permanent” hair dye.   So we are working the cost of “professional” hair color into the budget.  (yep, you got it.  It’s bad here.)

Sadie relaxing

The "dog" situation:

Sadie retired her larynx (and the vital organs supporting it) in July.  Upon reducing her physical being to a pint of ash, we celebrated by “reinvesting” to bring our canine fleet back up to full strength.   Apparently, somewhere along the line, we decided that life was too simple, inexpensive and easy to manage.  We rehomed (contemporary term for rescued) two dogs that bear a quirky resemblance to the last pair.

Copper and Olive relaxing. 
Notice a theme?

Copper is a ridge-less, Rhodesian Ridgeback. Consensus is that he looks like Marmaduke . . . and behaves the same come to think of it.  He’s a handsome devil and just like the humans, the lookers have their issues below the surface.  Olive (the other Reindeer)… Picked up on the side of the highway from the wrong side of the tracks in Prosser, WA (think of the setting for No Country for Old Men).  Her DNA test revealed she’s mainly a lab/shepherd mix with some terrier, beagle and a trace (.045%) basset hound which must be how she got her short legs.  So we’ve got two dogs who are not what they claim to be - must be witness protection program graduates.

We forgot what it was like to own young dogs.  They turned what we used to call a lawn into a series of troughs and berms.  You could say we have a motocross course . . . with an irrigation system.  Sure, just confine them to a dog run.  But then they just “store” their energy for when we get home.  It’s no secret that daily exercise for your dog curbs their problem, but we’ve decided that’s not our strength.

Life in North Bend:

Curt coached Si’s soccer team this fall.  He was the obvious choice – no soccer skills and a short fuse.   Clearly this was a baseball geared group.  10 straight weeks of continually assuring them that soccer is an all-weather sport.  The season highlight was the final game ending at halftime due to high winds and torrential rain.  No one even brought it up.

Si’s crowning achievement in second grade was a “My Community Project” where the student details an integral part of local living with which they are intimately familiar.  Si chose the North Bend Bar and Grill because “we visit 3 times a week and they have great nochos”.  We advised him 12 times a month is NOT three times a week and nachos is with an A.  We should get a year free meals for that publicity. . . . after we clear the CPS investigation.

Life outside of North Bend:

We took our first (of a projected total of one) family trips to

Matterhorn at Disneyland

Disneyland.  Ours are probably the only kids to spend five days at the park and never see, hear of, or ask about Mickey Mouse.   We sacrificed innocent meaningful art for commercialized adrenaline jolting fun generators. We could have saved thousands of dollars and achieved the same result by bungee jumping blind-folded from the trees in our yard. The visibility is better for sure.



We did a few weekend vacations

Friends and Family at Mt. Hood

this year.  We kicked 2011 off with a winter Chelan trip with friends for the Fire and Ice Festival.  While we did see both fire and ice, we also had a healthy dose of sledding, swimming, gambling, football and Spanish coffees.  We headed south to Mt. Hood for some skiing (and hot tubbing in the freezing weather).  Later in the year, we camped at Sequest Park near Mt St Helens.  Though we’ve tried to put their minds at ease, the kids are obsessed with the next looming eruption. Spent a few nights at the Lighthouse Keeper’s Inn at Cape Disappointment and the kids made sand angels at Washington’s own slice of Hawaii – Waikiki Beach. 


Camped with the dogs at Moran State park on Orcas -

Kids, Olive and Sadie

these days a tent is not suitable confinement for a puppy.  Turns out there is an advantage to the moldy, old oil-soaked canvas tent your parents inherited. In August, we re-engineered the Chelan “rent a 5,000 sqft house with a pool on the lake with 25 of our closest friends” vacation to become the “rent an RV hook up site at Blue Lake ‘Resort”, share it with a tent with 10 kids, next to a 1970 trailer home with plywood ADA ramp where the remaining six adults sleep with the main entertainment is watching the fly strip” vacation.    A good time was had by some.  Sign of the times.

2011 was good to us - there are so many things to enjoy in life that we often take for granted.  Everyone is healthy, happy and wiser than the year before.  We hope that 2012 is good to you, your family and your friends, and that we get to see you sometime during the year.  Best wishes this holiday!